Rallisport Challenge is a quick ride, but it's insanely fun!
Gameplay: 8/10 - Rallisport Challenge mixes an arcade feel of driving with a simulation damage model and physics. For the most part, it's a pretty entertaining racer. It's not too hard to the point of frustration, and it's not too easy for you to blow through in a few hours. The game has all of the Rally features . A full navigator with map, a progress bar to show how close to the finish line you are. The physics are forgiving enough to let small driving errors by, but screw up enough in a hairpin, and the rock you saw with the corner of your eye is about to get a lot larger. Another interesting challenge is whether to use the E-Brake or the actual Brake to slide the car. However, after a while of playing the game, the cars get almost TOO easy to handle, and that kind of makes for a lousy game. Oh well though....it still is fun to powerslide through mud at 150 miles per hour...
There's a decent variety in the things you can do in Rallisport Challenge. The game includes a basic Career Mode, a Single Race Mode, a Time Trial event, and heck, throw in some 4 PLAYER SPLIT-SCREEN ACTION!!! This is one of the few racing games I know of that features 4 player split-screen, which is a huge bonus for those of the friendly kind. Another strong point of Rallisport Challenge is the amount of Rally types. 4 Types of Rally Racing are offered, including your standard Rally, Hill Climb, Rally Cross, and Ice Racing. No one event is favoured over each other, and there's a pretty equal amount of tracks in each event. All of the types are pretty unique and offer a great challenge on their own. Rally is a simple point-to-point race, Hill Climb has you racing up or down a mountain, Ice Racing is circuit-based racing....on ice as the name suggests, and Rally Cross features Half-Tarmac, Half-Dirt/Gravel terrain on small raceways. All of them are pretty entertaining for a little while, which is great for people who are too lazy to get off the couch and change games. But still, there's a decent amount of action to be had here, and there's something for everybody...
The main mode in Rallisport Challenge is the Career Mode. Career Mode has a little over 20 events to compete in from a wide variety of classes. The way it works is that you get points from finishing each event. Totaling up these points opens up new events in career mode. For example, you need 70,000 points to open up the last class in career mode, and 100,000 points to complete career mode. One flaw I found is that you only need to complete about 85% of the events to get 100,000 points, and getting that will unlock everything in the game. But back to the Career Mode, races are split up into something like 5 classes, with different cars competing in each class. You'll find yourself racing hatchbacks at the start, and gradually work your way up the events list to be racing 1000hp Hill Climb Machines. The difficulty also increases with each new car class. Unlocking new cars is simply a matter of getting a set mark of career total points. Also, each new class brings you new rides. The career mode starts to get long near the end, as some Rally Cross and Ice Racing events become 5-7 lap marathons. But because some of the races are fairly short early on, Career can be completed in about 6 hours of non-stop playing.
The car list in Rallisport Challenge is pretty decent. Most of today's cars are featured, along with some classics and some Hill Climb cars from Pikes Peak. There are 29 cars in all, but a few absences are missing, mainly the Lancia Stratos and the Ford GT40. While most of the Hill Climb cars are from Pikes Peak, the track doesn't actually appear in the game. Why? I don't know. In fact, there isn't a lot of scenery in the game. There are only 3 different locations for the Rally, and the same for Hill Climb (though different places from Rally). Ice Racing and Rally Cross go the same way too, as there are 3 locations, but different track configurations for each just to boost the total, which was lazy in part of the developers. I felt ripped off by that, as I was expecting a greater variety. Same goes for the cars, as some of the Rally Cross versions are mere paint-overs of cars you've already driven. Another annoying bug was in the Single Race mode, the AI drivers drive horribly. I have seen cars fly off cliffs, run into each other, and smash into roadside objects such as houses (I've never seen a Toyota Tacoma fly that high in the air.....) and trees that are far off the racing surface. In short, do not race the AI. In all though, Rallisport Challenge is a pretty fun game to play....as long as you can get by the short-comings...
Graphics: 10/10 - All I can say is WOW!!! For a game that is 4 years old, this is still one of the best looking games on the XBOX. The game's scenery and cars look awesome. The grass is the strong point here, as it looks as if the same technique that was used in Battlefield 2 was used here. The cars also look great, as dirt and snow accumulate accordingly. The car damage is not all it's cracked up to be, but it still looks better than some racers on the market now. The menu is also done very nice, and it has the futuristic feel to it. For final, Rallisport Challenge is an amazing game to look at, and it has easily stood the test of time.
Sound: 7/10 - Not a very good sound for Rallisport Challenge. Most of the car sounds are generic, and I turned the music off, as it was very bad. Thankfully, you get a nice custom soundtrack feature to use, and it keeps this score from falling even lower. I still have mixed reactions to the sound...
Final: 8.2/10.0 - Rallisport Challenge is a great game, don't get me wrong about that. Yes, its got a good variety of modes, a decent selection of cars, a good amount of tracks, a great physics engine, but it doesn't capitalize on how much other stuff should have gone into this game. This game could have easily gotten a "9" from me, but there was a tad too many repeating tracks and cars that made the game just a bit shallow. In all though, if you want a more easy-going rally game, and you have just a handful of money, Rallisport Challenge is the way to go
Rent or Buy: RENT - Rallisport Challenge is a short enough game that can be seen in a rental period. However, if you have a bunch of controllers and a ton of friends, then Rallisport Challenge is the way to go...